While the Leonetti law of 2005 relating to the rights of the sick and the end of life is called into question, The life of ideas wished to contribute to clarifying a debate at the same time ethics, medical and philosophical which engages human freedom and dignity. Beyond the suffering of patients and relatives, it is up to the whole of society to engage the “ Trépas work », According to the expression of the psychoanalyst Michel de M’Uzan.
In Europe, 40 to 50 % of deaths result from a medical decision. The acceleration of the end of life can take various forms: interruption of treatment, stopping nutrition and hydration, massive administration of sedatives and, practical assimilated in France to homicide and therefore prohibited, injection of lethal products. What is called euthanasia (the “ good death », In Greek) and which concerns, in collective consciousness, incurable patients wishing to be assisted in suicide, in fact hides a plurality of gestures, decisions, irreducible reflections to these particular cases. In contrast, palliative care is aimed at serenely accompanying a patient until his last moments.
Authorizing doctors to kill, even with the intention of relieving unbearable suffering, arouses reluctance, even scandal. More broadly, the debate on euthanasia embraces the way in which we end and wants to end his life. If we owe one of the first reflections to the philosopher Francis Bacon, at the beginning of XVIIe A century, recent progress in medicine has made this questioning more acute, the extension of life not necessarily ensuring the conditions for an autonomous existence. Should we recognize the men a right to die, in a burst of ultimate freedom, or should we limit ourselves-the task is already enormous-to treat, help, accompany, surround the most vulnerable people, those who will soon be no longer ?
While the Leonetti law of 2005 relating to the rights of the sick and the end of life is called into question, The life of ideas wished to contribute to clarifying a debate at the same time ethics, medical and philosophical which engages human freedom and dignity. Beyond the suffering of patients and relatives, it is up to the whole of society to engage the “ Trépas work », According to the expression of the psychoanalyst Michel de M’Uzan.
Contents:
- Death, the patient and the researcher
by Marie Gaille (07-04-2009)
The request to let die or assistance with a view to dying does not always appear as a legitimate object of reflection: it arouses uneasiness that is both moral, political and legal. However, it reveals an immense field of investigation and reflection – which remains to be cleared.
- Vulnerability
by Marie Gaille (07-04-2009)
Bioethical reflection is today abundant. Corine Palluchon intends to refocus on the political question, by exhibiting what bases subjectivity: vulnerability, or broken autonomy. However, should we devalue the affirmation of full and whole autonomy of the moral subject ?
- The care of patients at the end of life
by Ruth Horn (14-04-2009)
A comparison between Germany and France
In Germany and France, euthanasia is prohibited. The study of the historical, political, legal and medical context of the two countries makes it possible to highlight the different ways of approaching the problems linked to the requests to die. The place that respect for the will of the individual takes a fundamental difference with Germany with French law, in which the will of all, represented by the State, prevails over the patient’s will.
- Can we distinguish active euthanasia and passive euthanasia ?
By Marta Spranzi
Active euthanasia, prohibited in France, consists in intentionally death to a patient who suffers in a desperate state. However, the law already authorizes doctors to let die. In fact, there is a continuity between the different end -of -life gestures: we can “ kill In many ways than by lethal injection.
- Take care of the sick at the end of life, an ethical approach to fragility
by Emmanuel Hirsch.
So almost 80 % of people die today in the context of a care institution rather than their home, it is because the medicalization of life until its end refuses the human community the highly symbolic times which connect it to its history and to the values which are constitutive. When the “ Biomedical ideology »Opposes the dignity of the sick, it becomes a denial of humanity.
- To the aid of the dying, medicalization and humanization in the social management of death
by Gérard Rimbert
The study of palliative care proposed by Michel Castra and the analysis of neonatal resuscitation led by Anne Paillet emphasizes the tension between medicalization and humanization of care and underline the contradiction between rescue of biological life and defense of the “ human dignity ».
- End of life ethics
By Marta Spranzi
Live or let die ? Two recent surveys look at the moral and medical dilemmas that arise in the neonatal and adult resuscitation services. Between secret and taking into account the wishes of families, end -of -life decisions reveal differences of approaches within the nursing teams.
- Day -to -day death
by Frédérique Giraud
Sociologist Véronique Guienne plunges into the heart of the hospital experience to reflect on the moral dilemmas of health professionals in their daily confrontation with death. She succeeds in the bet to build death in the hospital as a corporate object.